Barlow-Killingly Class M final: 5 takeaways

By Richard Gregory

Updated 12:38 am, Tuesday, December 12, 2017

NEW BRITAIN — The Joel Barlow High School football team’s first trip to a state championship game ended in defeat Monday at Willowbrook Park as Killingly completed an undefeated season with a 41-14 triumph in the Class M title clash. The Redmen scored 34 unanswered points after falling behind 14-7 in the first quarter — and losing Gatorade’s Connecticut Player of the Year Spencer Lockwood to an early ankle injury. Here are Five Takeaways from the championship game.

1. Problem solved: Barlow’s triple-option offense — its bread-and-butter for years now — had the Killingly defense on its heels early on. Alex Stillman rushed for 139 yards and a touchdown and Cal Peterson added 111 yards and a score, but the Redmen made some adjustments and slammed the door. Barlow had scored 100 points combined in its two tournament wins. “It took us a while to figure out the speed of it,” Killingly coach Chad Neal said. “Our defense came up and did a great job.”

2. Been there before: This may have been Barlow’s first title-game appearance, but not coach Rob Tynan’s. Tynan was an offensive and defensive lineman on the 1985 Trumbull High School team which defeated Glastonbury 27-21 in overtime to win the Class L-I state crown.

3. Finally: Killingly reached the state final after falling in the Class M semifinals each of the previous two seasons. The Redmen lost to eventual-champ Hillhouse last year, and to eventual-champ Brookfield two years ago.

4. Run, run, run: As was to be expected with two run-oriented offenses, there wasn’t a whole lot of passing by either team. Barlow misfired on all six of its passing attempts, while Killingly completed its lone pass — an eight-yard scoring strike from Luke Desaulnier to Vasileios Politis.

5. Strike up the band: Killingly got a bit of a pregame boost when its marching band performed the National Anthem.